Amazon Joins The ‘Penny Ahead’ Club

Amazon.com did a good impersonation of Cisco’s late-1990s ‘penny above’ routine after the close on Tuesday.

Pro forma earnings of 11 cents a share topped estimates by a penny, and revenues of $1.13 billion topped $1.12 billion forecasts. Fourth quarter revenue guidance of $1.76-1.91 billion compared favorably to $1.78 billion forecasts, and Amazon issued $5.75-6.25 billion revenue guidance for 2004, compared to $6.12 billion estimates.

Amazon slipped after hours, as traders were looking for more upside.

Also after the close, RF Micro , Avaya , Internet Security , CheckFree , Seagate , Cymer , eCollege.com and Advanced Fibre beat estimates. StorageTek missed revenue estimates, and webMethods and AsiaInfo warned.

Stocks were mixed during the day. Techs got a boost from Texas Instruments’ blow-out quarter and guidance, while the Dow traded lower on AT&T’s and SBC’s disappointing results.

The Nasdaq rose 15 to 1940, the S&P 500 added 1 to 1046, and the Dow fell 30 to 9747. Volume rose to 1.45 billion shares on the NYSE, and 1.74 billion on the Nasdaq. Advancers led 18-14 on the NYSE, and 18-13 on the Nasdaq. Upside volume was 53% on the NYSE, and 71% on the Nasdaq. New highs-new lows were 232-7 on the NYSE, and 239-6 on the Nasdaq.

J2 Global plunged 24% on a warning.

JDA Software , Earthlink and Silicon Labs surged on their results, while FindWhat , Ameritrade and Altera edged higher on their reports.

Chinese Internet stocks were hit on earnings worries. Sina , Sohu and Netease lost 7-11%.

IXOS surged 18% on a buyout.

Click2learn and Docent surged on merger plans.

And George Soros continues to prop up Bluefly .

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